JimmyCsays: At the juncture of journalism and daily life in KC

New Year’s Eve is probably my favorite day of the year.

Sure, I love Christmas and Christmas Eve, and July 4 and my birthday and Kentucky Derby Day. But to make it to the doorstep of a new year has always been most exciting for me.

If you’re fortunate enough to be in good health and of sound mind, the new year sprawls out like a long carpet. You don’t know where it will lead; all you know is that carpet is not going to be nearly as straight as it looks on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. There will be a lot of digressions and diversions, bumps and rolls. But it’s exciting to peer ahead, nevertheless.

One of my favorite parts of New Year’s Eve is the Times Square Ball Drop. Patty and I don’t always get to see it because we like to go out and be out for the turn of the calendar. (I expect that to be the case tonight. We’re meeting friends for a late dinner in Parkville and on the way back might drop by KC Live! in the Power & Light District and then Union Station.)

On Dec. 30, 2003, workers tested a 1,070-pound, six-foot diameter Waterford Crystal ball. The ball is suspended from a 77-foot flagpole atop the One Times Square building, about 400 feet above Times Square.

For me, the Times Square Ball Drop captures an uninhibited, unconditional embrace of the new year. The beaming faces on those tens of thousands of people (the vast majority of them young and with strong bladders) says everything about the joy of being alive at the end of one year, poised to plunge into the new one.

Another thing about the Ball Drop that warms my heart — and many of you might be only vaguely aware of this — is that we owe its existence to journalism, particularly to The New York Times.

Blogger Kate Kelly tells the story of how the tradition got its start…

The first New Year’s Eve celebration in Times Square occurred in 1904, just after The New York Times had relocated to a new building in what had been known as Longacre Square. Publisher Adolph Ochs had successfully pushed for a renaming of the district, and the triangular area where the new building sat at the intersection of 7th Avenue, Broadway, and 42nd Streets has since then been known as Times Square.

That year Ochs sponsored a party to beat all parties to celebrate the new location. An all-day street festival was capped off with a fireworks display, and there were thought to have been 200,000 people in attendance. The Times continued to sponsor a New Year’s Eve event in the area, and New Yorkers soon began going to Times Square instead of ringing in the new year at Trinity Church as had been the previous custom.

The Times soon outgrew the building in the heart of Times Square and has since moved a couple of times. It is still in the area, however, and, more important, the name of the world’s best newspaper has and always will be associated with the biggest New Year’s celebration of all.

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Tonight, fittingly, a group of journalists will ring in the New Year in Times Square.

As the official special guests, the group will appear on stage with the Committee to Protect Journalists and will push the button that starts the lowering of the great ball, which is covered with 2,688 Waterford Crystal triangles and illuminated by 32,000 LED lights.

Perhaps the best known journalist on stage will be NBC’s Lester Holt, the anchor who interviewed President Donald Trump in May about his firing of FBI director James Comey. (One of the more remarkable quotes from that interview was this from Trump: “I said, you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story.” Later, of course, he denied that the Russia investigation had anything to do with his firing of Comey.)

When I watch the ceremony, however — whether it be live or recorded — I’ll be focusing on lower-profile journalists like Karen Attiah and Alisyn Camerota.

Attiah is the global opinions editor of The Washington Post. In that role she oversaw the work of Jamal Khashoggi, the Washington Post contributing writer who was murdered and dismembered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul two months ago.

Camerota is an anchor at CNN, the network that in September was among targets of explosive devices allegedly mailed by a wild-eyed, unhinged Trump supporter named Cesar Sayoc.

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Of all the crazy forays President Trump has embarked on — like insisting on building “The Wall” and refusing to acknowledge global warming — his attempt to denude and emasculate our free press might represent the biggest threat to the future of our democracy.

Tonight, then, in addition to celebrating the dawning of a new year, let’s give thanks for a free press. And tomorrow and for all of 2019, let’s do all we can to support the continuation of that cherished and invaluable American institution.

Happy New Year, everyone! Whatever you do tonight, have a great time and stay as safe as you can…